The litter includes two females and one male. Keepers are seeking name suggestions for one of the pups via the zoo’s Facebook page.

“The pups have been in the den to date and we have been monitoring them via a video camera, to ensure they are growing and developing well, ” said keeper Ian Anderson. “Oriental small-clawed otters are a social species and live in large families so it is anticipated that the family will remain together for the near future.”

Say hello to Rosea, the baby koala who recently emerged from her mother’s pouch at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo. Photo by Natacha Richards, Taronga Western Plains Zoo.

At the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, Australia, visitors got the first glimpse of a new fuzzy face! A female koala joey, named Rosea after a species of flowering eucalypt, emerged from her mother’s pouch.

“Rosea is approximately eight-months-old and is a little shy at present, preferring to stay close to mum’s chest but in the coming months will start to move on to her mother’s back,” said keeper Natacha Richards.

The zoo has two more koala joeys and many wallaby joeys that have yet to emerge from their mothers’ pouches. So visitors to the zoo will have a lot to look forward to!

The white rhino calf at one day old. Photo credit: Leonie Saville, Taronga Western Plains Zoo. See more photos below.

The Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, Australia celebrated the arrival of a healthy male white rhinoceros calf last week. The calf’s birth represents a major conservation achievement!

Said Senior White Rhino Keeper, Pascale Benoit, “Everyone is just over the moon with the arrival of the white rhino calf, especially given the tragic of the loss of four members of this herd to disease last year, and the plummeting numbers of all rhino species in the wild.

“This calf is not only an important birth for Taronga Western Plains Zoo, but for the species as a whole. Mopani [the new calf’s mother] had never bred before so to produce an offspring has created a new genetic line and greater genetic diversity within the White Rhino population throughout Australasia.”

In Africa, wild white rhinos are threatened by poaching. Nearly 2000 rhinos have been slaughtered since 2006.

The Taronga Western Plains Zoo, located in Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia (400 km northwest of Sydney), recently announced the birth of a bison calf. Born to parents Shashone and Cherokee Bob, the yet-to-be-named calf is healthy and growing strong.

Newborn bison calves have a reddish, light brown coat and lack the distinctive hump of the adult bison. They begin turning brown and developing the hump after a few months.

For more information about bison, see Animal Fact Guide’s article: American Bison.